By now a lot of people have heard about the song “Barack the Magic Negro,” written by conservative satirist Paul Shanklin. The song has been around for a while. But it has a new lease on notoriety because John “Chip” Saltsman, a former GOP chief from Tennessee who is a contender for the Republican National Committee chairmanship, distributed the song as a Christmas gift to fellow conservatives.

The song is supposed to parody an article in the Los Angeles Times written by a black writer, David Ehrenstein, who ascribed Barack Obama’s popularity with white voters to his being a non-threatening black hero, akin to actor Sidney Poitier, capable of eliciting votes based on white guilt.